So what have I learned this week?

I discovered that I can survive without it, particularly in social scenes. Because I wasn’t thinking about writing another tweet, or checking some other application on the phone, I was focused on my friends. Mat and I went out for dinner a couple of times, and at first we joked that we were going to have to actually talk to each other, but it was great! I think this might be a lesson that some people in particular might need to learn; that having dinner without iPhones (or other technology for that matter) a couple of times a week isn’t a difficult thing (@amyob and @digitiel I’m looking at you).

I also learnt that it is damn convenient having an iPhone in your grasp. From checking my bank or the weather on the go, to being able to use google maps to find directions to where you want to go, it really does make life that much easier. This isn’t something new though; ask any iPhone owner and they’ll tell you the same. People who don’t have iPhones just don’t (and won’t) understand – they never will until they have one themselves. Remember the original comments when they first came out? “It’s just a phone!” Yeah right.

It also became apparent to me that suffering in public can be beneficial not only for myself, but for others as well. This week I’ve inspired another person to try the byephone challenge, convinced others to invest in an iPhone, and more importantly shown that by having strong willpower you can overcome almost anything. I’ve shown myself that if I can go without something I almost considered a necessity in my life, then I can put that strength to good use in other areas.

Update – It also appears that since Mat saw me succeed, he’s decided to try the original challenge, and give up poker for a week. I have faith he’ll be able to do it, he’ll just whinge a bit. Fair enough, since I did about my iPhone.

And now for the deep and meaningful part:

Perhaps everyone should take time to reflect on your own lives; see if you can find something you unknowingly treat as a necessity in life. Challenge yourself to go without it for a short period of time and see what happens. Or on the other hand, challenge yourself to try something new! Be it exercise, eating well, or something as silly as giving up an iPhone for a week, set yourself a goal and go for it. Because if you can prove to yourself you can do it, you’re well on your way to a lifetime of success.

(End of deep and meaningful bit). I’ve got my iPhone back! Yeah baby!

No related posts.

The “worst” moment of the day (if you can even call it that) would actually be right now while writing this post. The iPhone is less than 30cm away from me on the desk while I write this blog post. Completely unattended, sitting there solemly. Mat’s finally had to charge it up – the power bar turned red this evening. I think the battery meter is highly symbolic of whether Mat should invest in an iPhone; he simply doesn’t need it. I think he’s managed to extend the life of that battery in one week more than I ever thought possible. Indeed, anyone who actually uses an iPhone daily would echo my thoughts: a battery lasting longer than 2 days? Impossible!

There is 20 hours until I will have the iPhone back in my grubby hands. I expect the first day or so that I have it back it will be like a novelty and I will be unable to put it down, until eventually it works its way back into being an integral part of my existance. It’s a bit scary that such a small piece of technology could have so much of an impact on my life. But still, I’m looking forward to welcoming it back with open arms, with iTunes ready to restore it back to the life it once led. Oh iPhone, where for art thou iPhone?

No related posts.

Mat has still not charged the phone yet, and the power bar is now on half. That’s insane. If he hasn’t charged it by the end of this challenge I will be absolutely speechless. He has a god phone in his hands, and he chooses not to unleash it’s power. As Derryn Hinch would say, shame shame shame.

I’m on the home stretch now, not long to go.

No related posts.

Once again the work day passed in a blur, but I never really did much on my phone during work so this wasn’t a surprise. Jogging home was absolutely horrible though! At least at the gym I have a clock that I can easily look at to keep track of the time (I’m doing the Couch to 5k running program, and need to run/walk at specific intervals). With the c25k app I can just focus on running while voice prompts through the earphones tell me when it’s time to walk or run. Without the iphone, and without a treadmill, running home from the office was difficult at best. I wore my watch and put it on the stopwatch feature, put on my little Telstra mp3 player and set off. The very first interval where I had to change to running I was 30 seconds too late (I forgot to look at my watch). The rest of the run home I spent checking my watch every 30 seconds instead of focusing on my running technique. Very distracting, and I didn’t enjoy it at all.

This evening we went to a friends place for some poker and drinks. Angeline told me about how thrilled she was on getting the new iphone 3gs, and how she hasn’t stopped playing with it since. Props to her for being considerate though, since she didn’t take it out to show me (or torment me). Listening to the two of us discussing it finally convinced Paige that she wants one, and given that her phone contract runs out next month it’s perfect timing for her. She’ll be signing up for a new one as soon as she possibly can. Angeline congratulated me on being strong and giving myself a challenge, while Stu said I was just sadistic (he’s another iphone addict). We all then stirred Mat about not being able to go without poker for a week, which he just gave up and said he couldn’t do it (all this time he had been saying he could, but just “needed to find the right time”). I WIN!!

Purely because my friends are lovely and considerate, the night was a breeze. I was always occupied with poker so if I’d had my iphone I probably wouldn’t have used it anyway, and without their iphones laying around tempting me I had no problems at all. Once again I’m up for another challenge tomorrow though.

Tomorrow night we’re going to watch some friends play netball, another prime iphone opportunity. Normally while they’re playing I would multi-task watching the game while updating twitter. No twitter for me tonight! It feels like I’m disconnected when I go out on the town without tweeting, it’s a very strange sensation (I think it’s confirmed I’m a twitter addict).

I’m on the home straight now though! Only 3 days to go!

**Favourite moment for the day**

Not a “favourite” moment as such, but rather a “notable” one. Almost having a melt down over not having music while jogging!

No related posts.

Tomorrow night should be a bit more difficult though. Actually, a LOT more difficult. I’ll be visiting a friend’s house for some drinks & social time, and unfortunately (well, for me anyway)  they just recently purchased a brand new iphone 3gs. I’ve been dying to see one of these in action, so the fact that I will be in such close proximity to it and yet unable to even look at it without failing the challenge will kill me. I know there are a few of my twitter followers (no names @gcboi) who will be extremely eager to find out how I fared. Knowing my friends, I’m pretty sure they’ll take every opportunity to stir me up about it.

Mat informed me this morning that even after two days of “usage” the iphone’s battery is still a bit over 3/4 full. I have never been able to achieve that in the entire time I’ve owned the iPhone, so it really shows just how little he’s been using it. He hasn’t even bothered to install any additional apps! I had to tell him how to delete a text message tonight, however you can see that he’s become a lot more comfortable with using it in just the way he handles it. There might be positive signs on the horizon yet that he would be interested in getting one, but whether he would use it to its full potential remains to be seen.

Lastly, there are no exciting or funny moments to report. Stay tuned for tomorrow night’s post where I will let rip on how nasty my friends are for teasing me and just how difficult it was to not play with the 3gs. I’m almost halfway through the challenge now though, and I’m determined not to fail! 4 days to go!

No related posts.

Since I felt like yesterday wasn’t too bad I decided I was going to challenge myself today. After discovering the weather was going to be fine (via the Bureau of Meteorology website on the PC), I confirmed with Mat that I would ride my bike in. Normally this means that my iPhone would go in the front pocket of my backpack, earphones hanging out so I could listen to music while I rode. Today, I would have my iPod so I wasn’t completely without music. The only problem was that as I was riding in I realised I’d made a stupid choice for a playlist which had some non-favourable songs included. Typically one came on just as I was riding on the downhill/fast bit of the ride to work and I didn’t really want to stop the momentum just to change song (since the button on my iPhone headphones doesn’t work with my iPod). I frowned and kept riding, putting up with it.

The rest of the day passed in much of a blur. Towards the afternoon though it was time to go on a bit of a break (since I’d eaten my lunch working at the desk) and decided I would treat myself to a hot chocolate at San Churros. Catch was that I had to have it dining in. This is where the iPhone really shone – when you’re alone at a cafe/restaurant. Ordinarily I would spend the time reading through my rss feeds, catching up on facebook, or tweeting. With only the nokia I wasn’t confident in how it would go.

I was shocked by how fast the internet speed on the nokia was (still using optus 3g) but that was due to the fact that most of the websites have been adapted for mobiles (and therefore highly text based with absolute minimal graphics). While it felt faster than the iPhone, it was just downright ugly. I connected to facebook and even twitter, but gave up. Web browsing just wasn’t as fun with the nokia.

The rest of the day was quite uneventful. Before Mat left for poker tonight he advised me that the battery on the iPhone has also only dropped just a small amount. Normally after 1.5 days I need to charge it up! Definitely shows just how little Mat is using the phone, but I’m hoping that he will start using it more when he’s had time at home to actually play with it.

**Favourite moment of the day**

Getting 3 text messages from Mat tonight, the last one being “I can’t text message from this thing”. My, how technology befuddles him. Stark contrast from last night when he was so proud of making a phone call.

No related posts.

After I had handed over the phone I started playing with the replacement nokia. While I thought it was a brilliant phone when I had first gotten it (one of the first phones to have inbuilt GPS with maps and turn-by-turn navigation) it just couldn’t compare now. There was no twittering from this phone, no wifi, and no way of easily locating apps to download and install. Of the “apps” that were designed for the phone, 99% of them are games, and dodgy ones at that. I could tell already this phone was purely going to be “just a phone” over the next week.

I decided to get off the computer (which meant no chatting to friends anymore – didn’t have my iphone to use beejive) and read a book. The night passed fairly quickly then, and eventually Mat and I went to bed. Normally in bed I would lay there for a bit and read google reader until I felt tired, would put the iPhone down and fall asleep. This particular night, I laid in bed and twiddled my thumbs until slumber came.

This morning I woke up and didn’t really have time to think about it (although it did feel a bit funny getting the nokia and putting it into my bag instead of the iPhone). It wasn’t until I had dropped Mat off at work and was driving to my own workplace I had thought about picking up some groceries to use for dinner tonight. Which then made me think that I should check my bank balance first. Unless I was interested in using a painful automatic phone system, then checking my account would be impossible. For the second time in less than 24 hours I missed my phone. I decided I would pick up the groceries at the end of the day after I’d had a chance to check the account using the work computer. Inconvenienced moment number 1.

Later in the day I had the radio playing in the background at work when I heard a fantastic song come on. I’d never heard it before and was interested to find out who it was. Without my phone I couldn’t use shazam, and typically the radio dj didn’t say who it was at the conclusion of the song. Inconvenienced moment number 2.

The only time that I truly had a problem about missing my phone today was at the gym. I use an application called c25k (iTunes link) which is designed to train a couch potato to run 5km in only 9 weeks. It’s absolutely fantastic. You start your ipod music on the iphone, then turn on the app. You can listen to your music (with full functions including skipping songs, pausing etc) and will get voice prompts from the c25k on when it’s time to walk or run, warm up or cool down, and when you’ve reached half way. Using this app means that you don’t have to focus on the clock – you can focus on your breathing or technique, or something else altogether. Tonight at the gym I was only equipped with my old ipod classic which meant I had to pay attention to the clock and make sure I was walking/running at the right times. It felt like it almost made it a bit harder, because I was looking at how much time I had left. Towards the end of the workout I found I could use that to my advantage though and started counting down the time remaining rather than thinking “oh god now I have all this time to go”. Still, I definitely felt the loss of the iPhone, and that app in particular. Inconvenienced moment numbers 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the number of times I changed pace during my running training).

I’ve now been without my iPhone for 25 hours and I’m travelling pretty well. I’m not a raving lunatic demanding to get it back (yet), though I daresay that’s because I’ve been able to access the *main* functions all day via a computer – twitter & chatting to friends online. At this stage I expect I will find the rest of the week fairly easy like today (unless a certain sister keeps calling stirring me up about what she’s doing on her phone!!) but the real challenge will be the weekend. That’s when the iPhone comes into it’s prime – when I’m out and about and have lots of time to kill.

Until then, I think I’ll manage. Just.

**Favourite moments from today**

Picking up the nokia to call a friend with Mat saying “where are you taking my phone” only to realise it’s technically mine at the moment. Then looking sheepish for it.

Waiting for a friend to arrive home, and Mat whipping out the iPhone to call them before putting it away while looking at me with a VERY smug look on his face (not sure if that was to stir me about the iPhone or the fact that he was proud he’d worked out how to use it all by himself).

No related posts.

Ever since I announced the challenge I’ve had people tell me I’m nuts, that I’ll fail, and why the heck would I want to do such a thing. It’s simple really – I love to prove I can do things. I love making lists, and getting them all done. I love someone saying I can’t do something, and proving I can. That’s partially the reason behind my annual “things to do” lists (new year “tasks” rather than resolutions), and my crazy “give up chocolate for one month and be really stupid by doing it during the Easter period” task.

I don’t expect it to be easy. In fact, I expect that I will be whinging & bitching for most of the week about it, and there’s quite the possibility I could cry like a baby when my phone is returned. But It will be an interesting experiment to see just how much my life has changed since getting the iPhone, and seeing how truly dependent I am on it. For those who don’t have an iPhone (or blackberry or android phones) they just don’t understand why this challenge is such a big deal. I don’t know whether a week without my iPhone will cause a decrease in the quality of life I lead or whether it will be totally refreshing. I might come out on the other end and see that the iPhone truly is just another gadget that I want, not need.

I know there’s a few particular apps that I will missing in particular:

1. The calendar – I have a goldfish memory, plain and simple. Without the calendar I’m going to have to write myself paper reminders (the calendar on the nokia isn’t even worth contemplating) and stick them in my bag. It’s the old skool method my mum uses. I’ve already checked the week ahead and made sure there’s no appointments I’ll be forgetting about during the challenge.
2. Twitter – one of the best features about twitter is having it on your phone, and being able to use the GPS functionality to see what’s going on around you, not to mention be able to tweet things as they come to mind. Given I will be working 5 out of the 7 days of the challenge, I will still have twitter at my disposal via a computer, but it’s really not the same. When I’m out and about and have 5 minutes to spare, what am I going to do instead of reading everyone’s tweets?
3. Beejive – this is a combination of time wasting as well as laziness. I have a few friends that I constantly keep in touch with via instant messenger, and having the ability to use it on my phone means that if I’m at home I don’t have to sit at the computer to chat with them. I can sit on the couch and use my iPhone. That’s the laziness part. The time wasting is in conjuction with twitter. When I’m standing around somewhere and have 5 minutes to kill, I can’t log in online and hope there’s someone to chat to. I’ll have to *shudder* find something non-iPhone related to do!
4. ShapeUp – I’m currently trying to watch what I eat and lose weight. Part of that is doing the ol’ calorie counting, which is where ShapeUp comes in. Open the app, type in the food I just ate, it adds the calories and I see how much I have remaining for the day. I can also put in my exercise and see how it offsets my calories I’ve consumed. Not having the app with me for a week means that I’m going to have to keep a notepad with me, and consult a weight watchers points guide. There’s no way I could work out calories based on the nutritional panels on food by myself. Missing this app is really going to hurt
5. C25K - this app is used in conjunction with the “Couch to 5k” running program. The app basically counts down the time remaining in the work out, and tells you when to warm up, run, walk or cool down. Makes it only one hundred times easier for me, since I can focus on the work out and not the clock. Also going to be greatly annoying missing this app.
6. Safari – before I fall asleep I usually spend about 15 – 20mins using safari to browse my google reader feeds. I expect for this week I’ll go to bed and twiddle my thumbs on what to do. Perhaps I’ll have to pay some attention to Mat instead *shock horror*

Of course there are other smaller reasons I’ll miss it – not being able to google search on the fly, not playing some games when sitting around bored etc. Missing the majority of the apps above  means a  lifestyle change for which I have to anticipate for the changes and ensure I’m prepared in advance.

I haven’t even started the challenge yet, and already I’m amazed by just how much the iPhone has truly changed my life. I hope this week goes fast.

No related posts.

Then Jo stepped in.

My friend Jo has re-challenged me to give up the iPhone for a week, and in return I will get a mystery prize. She has a track record of sending me some pretty awesome stuff, so I eagerly accepted. We finetuned the rules, and set a time for the challenge to begin.

The rules:

1. I will be swapping phones with Mat for the duration of a week. His phone is my old Nokia 6110 Navigator.
2. I am in no way to use an iPhone at all. I am completely forbidden from touching it. This includes answering any of Mat’s phone calls or text messages on his behalf.
3. Jo has permitted me to substitute the iPhone with my iPod in cases where I used the iPhone’s iPod capability – while riding to/from work, running at the gym etc.
4. Whilst out and about with Mat, I am forbidden from requesting him to use iPhone features I would normally use, like google maps for example. If we need directions somewhere, it will be back to the old paper map method (even though the Nokia has GPS functionality).
5. If required, I will instruct Mat on how to use the iPhone (if he is struggling with how to do something) but I am not allowed to touch it as per point 2.
6. The challenge begins on Monday 20th July 2009 at 8pm EST, and concludes on Monday 27th July 2009 at 8pm.

Each day that I go without my iPhone I’ll post a blog on how I managed to survive. I should also keep a tally of how many times I go to get the nokia to do something with it that I would normally do with my iphone, although I expect the count to go into the thousands.

As a bonus, it will be interesting to see how Mat handles actually having an iPhone. Recently I’d suggested to him that I get the new 3gs while he has my 3g, but he insisted that he wouldn’t like owning one. To make sure he gets the full experience, I’ll completely back up my phone and restore it to factory so he can have the excitement of discovering applications he might like (though I will be sure to throw some recommendations his way before it reaches 8pm Monday night).

With the challenge starting at 8pm Monday night, I’m officially under the 24 hour mark now until I lose my iPhone for a week. This will be interesting!

**edit**

Due to technical problems the official exchange didn’t take place until just before 9pm. Therefore the challenge will continue until 9pm on Monday 27th July.

No related posts.